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Unpaid Internship? Some Colleges Pick Up the Tab

Amid mounting criticism of intern labor practices, several colleges are paying students who take on unpaid internships. Melissa Korn explains on the News Hub. Photo: Getty Images.

By

Melissa Korn

Updated June 19, 2013 2:29 a.m. ET

The plight of the unpaid intern is improving. Not because businesses are paying more for summer helpers, but because colleges are stepping in to pay when companies can't, or won't, compensate student hires.

Schools have long granted stipends for stints in nonprofits and the arts, where unpaid labor is common, but now they are paying the way for students to work at profit-making enterprises, including a New York money-management firm,...